G. Gordon Liddy
179342
225440533
2008-07-13T18:33:21Z
201.5.156.235
{{Infobox Criminal
| image_name = G. Gordon Liddy c 1964.jpg
| subject_name = George Gordon Liddy
| image_size = 150px
| image_caption =
| date_of_birth = {{Birth date and age|1930|11|30}}
| place_of_death = Unknown
| charge = [[Conspiracy (crime)|Conspiracy]], [[burglary]], illegal [[wiretapping]]
| penalty = 20 year imprisonment, later commuted by President [[Jimmy Carter]]
| status = Released
| occupation = [[Attorney]], [[FBI]] agent, [[politician]], [[radio personality]]
| spouse = Frances Ann Purcell
| parents = Sylvester J. Liddy and Maria Abbaticchio
| children =
}}
'''George Gordon Battle Liddy''' (born [[November 30]], [[1930]]) was the chief operative for the [[White House Plumbers]] unit that existed during several years of [[Richard Nixon]]'s Presidency. Along with [[E. Howard Hunt]], Liddy masterminded the [[Watergate first break-in|first break-in]] of the [[Democratic National Committee]] headquarters in the Watergate building in [[1972]]. The subsequent cover-up of the [[Watergate scandal]] led to Nixon's resignation in 1974; Liddy served four and a half years in prison for his role in the burglary.
Liddy later became an [[United States|American]] radio talk show host, actor and political strategist. Liddy's [[talk radio|radio talk show]] is now [[radio syndication|syndicated]] in 160 markets and on both [[Sirius Satellite Radio]] and [[XM Satellite Radio]] stations in the [[United States]]. He has also been a guest panelist for [[Fox News Channel]] in addition to appearing in a cameo role or as a guest celebrity talent in several television shows.
==Early years==
Liddy was born in [[Hoboken, New Jersey]], to Sylvester J. Liddy and Maria Abbaticchio; his maternal grandfather was of Italian descent.<ref>[http://www.wargs.com/other/liddy.html Ancestry of G. Gordon Liddy<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Liddy was raised in [[West Caldwell, New Jersey]] and educated at [[Fordham University]]. He was named for George Gordon Battle, a New York City attorney who had mentored Liddy's father.
Liddy has said that, as a child, he grew up in a [[German-American]] community that included many admirers of [[Adolf Hitler]], and that listening to Hitler's speeches "made me feel a strength inside I had never known before." As an adult, however, he came to condemn [[Nazism]] and Hitler as "evil". <ref>[http://mediamatters.org/items/200411230004?offset=20&show=1 Media Matters - G. Gordon Liddy: listening to Hitler "made me feel a strength inside I had never known before"<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
He graduated in [[1952]] and joined the [[United States Army]], serving for two years as an [[artillery]] officer at the time of the [[Korean War]], but did not leave the US due to an injury. He returned home in [[1954]] to study [[law school|law]] at [[Fordham University School of Law|Fordham]], earning a spot on the Law Review. Graduating in [[1957]], he went to work for the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) under [[J. Edgar Hoover]].
Liddy left the FBI in [[1962]] and worked as a lawyer in [[New York City]] and a prosecutor in [[Dutchess County, New York]]. In [[1966]], he organized the arrest and unsuccessful trial of [[Timothy Leary]]. He ran unsuccessfully for the post of District Attorney and then for the [[United States House of Representatives]] in [[1968]], but used his political profile to run the presidential campaign of [[Richard Nixon]] in the 28th district of New York.
==White House years==
In 1971, after serving in several positions in the Nixon administration, Liddy was moved to Nixon's 1972 campaign, the [[Committee to Re-elect the President]] (officially known as "CRP" but to opponents known as CREEP), in order to extend the scope and reach of the White House "Plumbers" unit, which had been created in response to various damaging leaks of information to the press. At CRP, Liddy concocted several plots, some far-fetched, intended to embarrass the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] opposition. These included firebombing the [[Brookings Institution]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] (where classified documents leaked by Daniel Ellsberg were being stored), kidnapping [[anti-war protest]] organizers and transporting them to [[Mexico]] during the [[Republican National Convention]] (which at the time was planned for [[San Diego]]), and luring mid-level Democratic campaign officials to a house boat in [[Baltimore]] where they would be secretly photographed in compromising positions with call girls. Most of Liddy's ideas were rejected, but a few were given the go ahead by Nixon Administration officials, including the break-in at [[Daniel Ellsberg|Daniel Ellsberg's]] psychiatrist's office. Ellsberg had leaked the [[Pentagon Papers]] to the ''[[New York Times]]''.
At some point, Liddy was instructed to break into the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel{{Fact|date=December 2007}}.
For his role in [[Watergate]], which he coordinated with Hunt, Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping, and received a 20-year sentence. He served a total of five and half years in prison, including over 100 days in solitary confinement, before his sentence was commuted by President [[Jimmy Carter]] and he was released on [[September 7]] [[1977]].
==After prison==
{{Original research|date=December 2007}}
In 1980, Liddy published an autobiography, titled ''Will'', which sold more than a million copies and was made into a television movie. The book received reviews that were typically laudatory of Liddy's writing ability and sense of humor, if not of his personal character. In it he states that he once made plans with Hunt to kill journalist [[Jack Anderson]], based on a literal interpretation of a Nixon White House statement "we need to get rid of this Anderson guy".<ref>{{cite book
| author = Liddy, G Gordon
| year = 1996
| title = '''Will'''
| publisher = St. Martins Press
| pages = 208-211.
}}</ref><ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5D8163CF931A25752C1A96E948260 The G. Gordon Liddy Story Continues With Chapter 11 - New York Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In the mid 1980s Liddy went on joined lecture circuit, and was listed as the top speaker in the college circuit in 1982 by the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]''. He later joined with fellow ex-con [[Timothy Leary]] on a series of debates which were popular on the college circuit as well. Liddy remained in the public eye with two guest appearances on the 1984-89 television series [[Miami Vice]], playing the role of "Capt. Real Estate," a character loosely based on himself.
Also in the early 1980s Liddy joined forces with former [[Niles, Illinois]] Police Officer and co-owner of The Protection Group, Ltd., [http://www.bugsweeps.com/info/bus_week.html Thomas E. Ferraro, Jr.], to start up a private security and [[countersurveillance]] firm called, [[G. Gordon Liddy & Associates]]. The firm was not a success, however, and it filed for bankruptcy on [[November 12]], [[1988]].
In [[1992]], Liddy emerged to host his own talk radio show. Its immense popularity led to national syndication in under a year through [[Viacom]]'s [[Westwood One]] Network and later [[Radio America]] in [[2003]]. The show reflects Liddy's politically conservative viewpoints and highly provocative though engaging style.
In addition to ''Will'' and the nonfiction books ''When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country'' (2002) and ''Fight Back! Tackling Terrorism, Liddy Style'' (2006, with his son Cdr. James G. Liddy, J. Michael Barrett, and Joel Selanikio), Liddy has published two novels: ''Out of Control'' (1979) and ''The Monkey Handlers'' (1990). Neither novel sold as well as the autobiography.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
Contrary to popular belief, Liddy has remained a [[Roman Catholic]] throughout his life, but often disagrees with the preachings of the American Catholic Church, particularly during the [[Vietnam War]].
==Controversial statements==
During Liddy's tenure as a radio talk-show host, many controversial statements have been attributed to him, including causing the release of [[John Dean]]'s home phone number in [[1993]] on the radio when Dean was threatening to sue Liddy for defamation{{Fact|date=June 2008}} and Liddy called Dean's home on the air to only reach his answering machine that announced the phone number.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} Some of his comments led to condemnation by then President Bill Clinton{{Fact|date=June 2008}} who was under constant attack by conservative talk radio.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}
* [[August 26]], [[1994]] - ''Now if the [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms]] comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing [[bulletproof vests]]." ... "They've got a big target on there, [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives|ATF]]. Don't shoot at that, because they've got a vest on underneath that. Head shots, head shots.... Kill the sons of bitches.''
* [[September 15]], [[1994]] - ''If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a [[firefight]], give them a firefight. Just remember, they're wearing flak jackets and you're better off shooting for the head.''
Liddy claimed that his detractors omit some important context: <ref>[http://www.rightwingnews.com/interviews/liddy.php The G. Gordon Liddy Interview - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
:I was talking about a situation in which law enforced agents comes smashing into a house, doesn't say who they are, and their guns are out, they're shooting, and they're in the wrong place. This has happened time and time again. The ATF has gone in and gotten the wrong guy in the wrong place. The law is that if somebody is shooting at you, using deadly force, the mere fact that they are a law enforcement officer, if they are in the wrong, does not mean you are obliged to allow yourself to be killed so your kinfolk can have a wrongful death action. You are legally entitled to defend yourself and I was speaking of exactly those kind of situations. If you're going to do that, you should know that they're wearing body armor so you should use a head shot. Now all I'm doing is stating the law, but all the nuances in there got left out when the story got repeated.
==Acting career==
{{Unreferencedsection|date=July 2008}}
G. Gordon Liddy has acted in several films, including ''[[The Highwayman (TV series)|The Highwayman]]'', ''[[Street Asylum]]'', ''[[Camp Cucamonga]]'', ''[[Adventures in Spying]]'' and ''[[Rules of Engagement (film)|Rules of Engagement]]''. He also appeared in the television shows ''[[18 Wheels of Justice]]'' and ''[[MacGyver]]'', had a recurring role on ''[[Miami Vice]]'', and guest starred in [[Al Franken]]'s TV show ''[[LateLine (sitcom)|LateLine]]''.
Liddy appeared on a celebrity edition of the [[NBC]] TV show [[Fear Factor]] on September 12, 2006 (filmed in November, 2005). At 75 years of age, Liddy was the oldest contestant ever to appear on the show. Liddy beat the competition in the first two stunts, winning two motorcycles custom built by [[Metropolitan Chopper]]. In the final driving stunt, Liddy crashed and was unable to finish.
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://www.liddyshow.com Official Website]
*[http://www.nndb.com/people/349/000023280 G. Gordon Liddy] at [[NNDB]]
* {{imdb name|name=G. Gordon Liddy|id=0005147}}
*[http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2505 FAIR Article on G. Gordon Liddy Talk Show Statements]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liddy, G. Gordon}}
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:American criminals]]
[[Category:American radio personalities]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:American political pundits]]
[[Category:American television talk show hosts]]
[[Category:American memoirists]]
[[Category:Disbarred American lawyers]]
[[Category:Former atheists and agnostics]]
[[Category:Fordham University alumni]]
[[Category:Fordham University School of Law alumni]]
[[Category:Italian-Americans]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Hudson County, New Jersey]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]
[[Category:Watergate figures]]
[[Category:CREEP alumni]]
[[Category:American vegetarians]]
[[Category:FBI agents]]
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